The Mysterious Disappearance Of Julia Madsen

Almost seven summers ago, just before sunset, Julia “Julie” Madsen told her husband she was going to go for a walk on the beach near their family home on 22nd Avenue in South Seaside Park.

Then she was gone. Forever.

And the Madsen family still has no answers. They know there is virtually no chance the 72-year-old mother and grandmother - who was in the early stages of Alzheimer disease - is still alive, according to app.com.

Hundreds of searchers walked the beach, went door-to-door and fanned out across nearby Island Beach State Park. Tracking dogs, helicopers, boats and drones were also used in the search. There was no trace of Julie Madsen.

“I don’t know how someone can disappear off the face of the earth without somebody seeing something,” Julia’s sister-in-law Bernice Madsen. “There are no answers for us. It goes on and on and on.”

A piece of a human skull was discovered at Island Beach in April and turned over to the New Jersey State Police forensics lab to be tested. The DNA profile did not match Julia, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection told app.com.

The family has offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who can provide information about her disappearance. Anyone with information should contact Berkeley Detective Joseph Santoro at 732-341-1132, ext. 120 or 732-341-6600. Santoro has been involved in the search for Julia since she vanished.

“I think about it every day,” he told app.com in a 2014 article. “That’s a very secluded, small island with one roadway in and one roadway out and no one saw anything. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

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